Hi and welcome to another episode of Girl Boss Radio from Panoply.

I'm Sophia Am Russo, the founder of Nasty Gal, the founder of Girl Boss,

the author of the New York Times best-selling book Girl Boss,

and the author of Nasty Galaxy, which was just released last month.

On this podcast, I interview a different woman about her story, about where she started,

where she is today, how she got there, what she learned, and what she has to share with us,

so that we can have lives that we love.

Today's guest is Alyssa Mestra Monaco, the CEO of Vice and former deputy Chief of Staff to President Obama.

So let's get into it.

From her early days bagging groceries,

Alyssa Master Monaco realized she had a gift for logistics.

That gift led her all the way to the White House where she served as President Obama's deputy chief of staff.

If you wanted to talk to Obama, you had to go through Alyssa first. She's seen and done it all.

Flea Marine One campaigned with Obama across the country, managed

national crises, and dined in Buckingham Palace.

She left politics in 2014 and now works as the chief operating officer of Vice Media.

We're so happy to have my friend Alyssa in the studio today.

Alyssa, thank you so much for being here.

Thanks for having me.

This is super fun.

So I like to start every podcast with the same question which is Alyssa what was your first job? Not career job, but like first job. My first job was working at Kilmer's IGA, which was a grocery store in the

center of the really small town I grew up in, and I was a really good checker.

...